3 dot-com stocks to consider as investments

Once upon a time, investors mistakenly assumed that all dot-coms were pretty much alike. The dot-com boom and bust resulted. Today, the strongest companies are those that have developed their niche and customer base, while also touting frugality over science fiction.

While stock of Priceline and Amazon are down in value this year, Salesforce has risen impressively. The stock prices of all remain attractive enough to have experts interested in them.

All three of these companies have solid balance sheets, with plenty of cash to cover debt and allow them to grow internally or through acquisitions. That's important because growth is a major reason behind investing in technology stocks.

Here is their positioning:

Priceline.com.The online travel company, which provides booking for hotels, airlines, rental cars, cruises and other vacation packages, handles hotel reservations in more than 60 countries. It enjoys a particularly strong price advantage in Europe and Asia, where suppliers are more fragmented. You name your own price.

Salesforce.comThis company is the leading provider of on-demand hosted sales-force automation software. Its emphasis is on helping companies cut their information technology costs through its software-as-a-service approach. It has more than 72,500 customers worldwide, with about one-fourth of its revenue coming from outside the U.S.

Amazon.comAs the largest online retailer in the world, Amazon derives about half of its sales from books, movies, music and video games. The rest comes from electronics, general merchandise and credit card agreements. About half of its sales come from outside the U.S. Many of its items are priced to attract cost-conscious shoppers.